Darling

Last Thursday was a special day for Our girl.

The story began last year when Miss K was doing a school project about the RNLI. There was one tale in particular that touched her and that is the heroic story of Grace Darling. 

It just struck a chord in the heart of our girl and has enthralled her since.

The area where Grace Darling lived is very close to our happy place, where we love to holiday. While we were there at Easter we went to the small village of Bamburgh. We visited the Grace Darling  museum, the cottage where  she was born and the Darling family grave.

K loved it. We loved it, the museum was fantastic and we highly recommend a visit!

While there, we found out that there is a boat trip that can take you to the lighthouse where the Darling family lived and worked. The place where a brave rescue took place! 

We waited until our summer visit and it was well worth the wait. 

We made our way to Seahouses, with a very excited girl! 

And it delivered. 

K was quiet to begin with. She was nervous as it was her first trip on a boat. 

The closest she came to admitting her nerves was to tell us that Emmy was nervous. 

We knew, but she kept it quiet. As always. 

The weather was glorious, the water like glass. 

Fraser was in his element. He loved being out on the water, talking of memories of being out on Grandad Jimmy's boat. 

The day was perfection. 

5 mins Before the tour guide mentioned it, K told us the history of this lighthouse, Brownsman lighthouse where Grace grew up before the Darling family moved to Longstone lighthouse. 

She knew every detail.

As the lighthouse came into view, K whispered 

"I've waited my whole life for this."

Our girl was the first in line to climb the 96 steps to the top.

 Chatting to the guide the whole way and asking questions.

At the top we listened to the technical details and how manual the job was all those years ago. 

It was so hot up there! But the view was magnificent. 

This was the window in Grace's bedroom where she spotted the boat on the rock in a violent storm.

A dream come true for our Miss Kirsten.

The view of the distance between the wreckage and the lighthouse where Grace and her Dad rowed their boat through a violent storm. It seemed so far.

Emmy was very well taken care of on her very first boat trip and her nerves seemed to disappear at the same time as her Mummy's ;-)

I think this is a day we will never forget. 

We all left that boat with happy hearts and golden memories.

A Darling day indeed.

Summer.

Our summer holidays and summer bucket (and spade) list are in full flow :-) hurray!!

 On July 10th I celebrated my 32nd Birthday. I had a fantastic day surrounded by my fantastic family and was very spoiled! Everyone knows me oh so well, all of my gifts were so thoughtful! I also managed to rip my cardi sliding down a big slide on a trip for work. Some things will never change I guess.....  It was too funny to be embarrassing! The good thing about being in my 30s, I care even less what people think of me than I did in my twenties! Lol. One for the memory banks for sure :-)

Speaking of memory banks....... We are currently on a week long break to our happy place. So far it has been fantastic. Fun. Sunny. Warm. Relaxing. Everything our bodies and souls were needing.

I have many many MANY pics to share but my Internet is sketchy and my eyelids are heavy, so I will share a few and hope to be back tomorrow to share a little more.

I hope your summer is treating you well so far and that whatever you are doing - you are happy happy happy xx

10 years

Last week we attended a reunion ball to celebrate 10 years since Murray graduated university. Our very good friends Cheryl and Richard stayed with us , which was great fun.

I think we all scrubbed up real well :-)

Aww my man looks so handsome in his kilt 

The beating of the retreat

We had some fabulous dance moves

And we had so much fun!

It's so nice to get some date time together. 

I love our family time

But I love "us" too :-) 

Friends.

I had no idea of the mad dancing skills that these boys possess! 

Happy 10 years! 

Next year we will celebrate 11 years of Richard and I not graduating from St Andrews University :-) 

We love any excuse to celebrate! 

A rainy Tuesday

I'm still so pleased that k gets to come to work with me and the summer holidays are making me ever more grateful. I also now finish at 1.30 which is awesome! The ,owning zooms by and I get to come home at roughly the time Frase usually rises from his bed... Lol.

Today after work, we headed home for a leisurely lunch. It was cold and wet outside and we settled inside all cosy, grateful that we had nowhere to be. No school run, no errands. Just home time.

K spread out all of her babies and we began many intricate games that involved lots of - "ok, so, you be my mum and I'm having a baby. Pretend you thought that it was  the kid  that I already had and ..... but it's not, it's actually a new one and pretend that you didn't notice that I had already had a baby and no . ...... Wait..... Right so I am in the hospital and you come to see me and ....... No wait ...."

As sweet as these games are and as precious and fleeting these moments may be, there is only so much I can take! It's exhausting!
After a while I decided that it would be nice to find a quiet corner to finish my book. I sneaked upstairs and filled a bath, afterwards with ony a few pages to go, I headed to my bedroom where it was an oasis of calm...... For about 30 seconds.  I was followed almost immediately and joined by K who wanted to drag all of the mess up with her and spread it all around my room! I said no way, she had already taken over the entire living room!
She begged and almost cried.
 We compromised.
I said she could have one baby..... A plastic bath.... A multitude of clothes and blankets...... And pretty much most of her stuff.  She scrubbed up in a quick bath and joined me on my bed to watch you've got mail.

And here was me thinking I wanted a quick half hour of being alone. 

When what I really wanted was a sweet smelling, pj clad little mummy to keep me company as we watched my favourite film and listened to the rain pitter patter on the window

These are my favourite kind of days. 

Ps-that wooden unit drives me crazy! It's my favourite piece of furniture we own yet it attracts clutter like no other surface in the house! I need something pretty to make me want to keep it clear and nice. Hmm maybe another thing to add to my summer list